Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS: Delhi Reports 228 New COVID-19 Cases, 12 Deaths In Last 24 Hours
Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Tuesday, June 15, 2021: The 'Delta' variant has further mutated to form the 'Delta plus' or 'AY.1' variant. Initial data suggests that the Delta plus variant shows signs of resistance against the monoclonal antibody cocktail treatment. This treatment for Covid-19 was recently authorised by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
Maharashtra reports 9,350 new Covid-19 cases, 15,176 discharges and 388 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Active cases: 1,38,361
Total recoveries: 56,69,179
Death toll: 1,14,154
Jharkhand reports 184 fresh cases, 4 deaths, and 596 discharges in the last 24 hours; active cases at 2646
Dr RS Sharma, Head, National Health Authority on Tuesday informed that so far, 25.69 crore COVID vaccination certificates have been issued in the country.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that relaxation in lockdown will be allowed on basis of test positivity rate under local self-govt bodies. Local bodies with below 8% test positivity rate to function normally with restrictions, to be allowed to open shops. Govt offices to function with 25% employees, public transport to operate partially, shops selling essentials will be allowed to open on all days, bars to open from June 17. Complete lockdown to continue across the State on weekends.
Almost 85% decline has been seen in daily cases since the highest reported peak. We are witnessing this situation after 75 days, thus indicating an overall decline in infection rate: Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry on COVID19 situation
Punjab govt orders relaxations from tomorrow; Restaurants, dhabas, cinemas, gyms etc to open at 50% capacity, subject to all their employees have received at least one dose of vaccination. Bars/clubs/ahatas to stay shut.
Night curfew to be in place daily in the state from 8 pm to 5 am, and weekend curfew from 8 pm Saturday to 5 am Monday, as state moves towards partial reopening.
Mumbai's Dharavi records zero cases of Covid-19 for the second day. Active cases stand at 11, as per the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.
Jharkhand: All government & private offices are now permitted to open till 4 pm with 50% human resources. All shops including fruits and grocery will remain closed from Saturday 4 pm till Monday 6 am. Health services and related shops are exempted.
The Uttar Pradesh government will be launching its cluster approach strategy to ensure that maximum persons in the target age group are covered.
To scale up vaccination drive against the pandemic virus in July, public mobilization and vaccine facilitation activity will be intensified in small geographical areas which may be as small as 10-12 villages.
The purpose is to go in phases and saturate the selected area to ensure that no one is missed out.
Developed with the help of partners, including UNICEF, UPTSU, WHO, Rotary, CSOs and NGOs for the state government, the strategy was formalized through an official order issued by additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad.
A dry run of the strategy will begin on June 17.
The Coronavirus positivity rate in Andhra Pradesh has fallen to 6.58 per cent in a month's time, from 25.56 per cent on May 16.
At a Covid review meeting by Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, officials said the positivity rate in all the districts is below 17.5 per cent, including less than 9 per cent in seven districts and between 10 - 19 per cent in six districts.
Likewise, active Covid caseload dropped to 80,013 while the recovery rate rose to 94.61 per cent.
Meanwhile, the 104 Covid helpline number received five lakh calls from April 15, including making 6.41 lakh outgoing health advisory calls to people while 2,700 calls were being made at the time of the review meeting.
Until Monday, the southern state reported 2,303 black fungus cases, out of whom 157 victims succumbed to the disease.
As per the directions of Reddy, officials released an order to support the families of health department staff who succumbed to Covid while discharging Covid duties.
"The Chief Minister directed officials to ensure they receive financial assistance soon and (told them) to plan to provide financial assistance to health staff of private hospitals who were treating Covid patients and succumbed to Covid," said an official.
With the addition of 351 fresh coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Thane district of Maharashtra mounted to 5,25,488, an official said on Tuesday.
These new cases were reported on Monday, he said.
With 23 more patients succumbing to coronavirus, the overall death toll in the Thane district rose to 10,299. The mortality rate is 1.95 per cent, he added.
The details of the recovered and under-treatment patients were not provided by the district administration.
In neighbouring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count has gone up to 1,13,714 while the death toll is 2,407, the official said.
India reports 60,471 new COVID 19 cases (lowest after 75 days), 1,17,525 discharges & 2726 deaths in last 24 hrs, as per Union Health Ministry.
Total cases: 2,95,70,881
Total discharges: 2,82,80,472
Death toll: 3,77,031
Active cases: 9,13,378
Total Vaccination: 25,90,44,072
Covid positivity rate in Jammu district has dropped to 1 per cent, while its recovery rate has touched 95 per cent, Deputy Commissioner Anshul Garg said at a press briefing on Monday.
Garg said that recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases in the district, while the bed occupancy too has reduced in the Government Medical College (GMC).
Regarding vaccination, he informed that five sites have been designated for administering the second dose, while three sites have beem made available for the first dose.
Urging the people to book their slot online and get vaccinated, Garg said that a total of 6.65 lakh people have been inoculated with the first dose of the vaccine in the district, including 3.7 lakh in the 45+ age group and more than 76,000 in the 18-44 age group.
The Deputy Commissioner said that under the Covid survey SAKSHAM, 70 families have been identified so far, out of which 47 families have been verified, who will be provided with pension/scholarship under the scheme.
In terms of recovery of Covid patients, the eight northeastern states fare the worst even as the country's recovery rate is rising regularly and touched 95.43 per cent on Monday.
According to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry's Covid-19 data on Monday, the recovery rate in Mizoram is the lowest in the country, at 76.46 per cent, while Sikkim has 79.18 per cent, Nagaland 83.27 per cent, Manipur 84.14 per cent, Meghalaya 87.22 per cent, Assam 90.14 per cent, Tripura 90.24 per cent, and Arunachal Pradesh 90.31 per cent.
However, in the fatality ratio, four northeastern states -- Mizoram at 0.44 per cent, Arunachal Pradesh at 0.46 per cent, Assam at 0.86 per cent, and Tripura at 1.05 per cent -- are better than the national average of 1.27 per cent. The death ratio in the remaining four -- Sikkim (1.53 per cent), Manipur (1.63 per cent), Meghalaya (1.75 per cent) and Nagaland (1.92 per cent) -- is worse.
Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Monday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh for all the families under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) which lost their earning or adult members due to Covid-19.
Taking to twitter, Yediyurappa said that due to the pandemic, many families in the state are in trouble. "Keeping this in mind, we have decided to give Rs 1 lakh to each BPL family, which lost their adult members," he said.
The CHief Minister added that the benefits of the package will reach around 25,000 to 30,000 families and this initiative will cost the state exchequer between Rs 250 crore and Rs 300 crore.
Ranking second after Maharashtra on the Covid tracker, deaths due to the infection crossed the 33,000-mark across Karnataka on Sunday, including 15,319 in Bengaluru alone, the state health bulletin said on Monday.
"With 120 people, including 12 in Bengaluru, succumbing to the infection during the day, the state's death toll shot up to 33,033 and the city's toll to 15,319 since the pandemic broke out in mid-March a year ago," said the bulletin.
With 6,835 new cases registered on Sunday, the state's Covid tally increased to 27,71,969, including 1,72,141 active cases, while 25,66,774 recovered from the disease, with 15,409 patients getting discharged in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.
As the epicentre of the pandemic in the state, Bengaluru reported 1,470 fresh cases on Sunday, taking its Covid tally to 11,98,158, including 85,044 active cases, while recoveries rose to 10,97,794, with 2,409 patients getting discharged during the day.
Out of the 1,49,742 tests conducted across the state on Sunday, 31,828 were through rapid antigen detection and 1,17,914 through RT-PCR method.
The state's positivity rate declined to 4.56 per cent, while its case fatality rate was recorded at 1.75 per cent across the state on Sunday.
With the Covid test positivity rate (TPR) falling to 11 per cent and antipathy towards disruptions to normal life growing in Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said from Thursday onwards, there would be a change in strategy on the lockdown norms.
"In the coming days, we will be coming out with the new strategy to be adopted on how Covid should be tackled and it could be centred around the actual places where there are higher number of cases," he said, noting that experts have warned of a third wave and "hence we all have to work together to ensure that we are not pushed into a third lockdown".
"No one need to be worried of a third wave as the government is fully geared to tackle it and we are working on how best we can do it, especially as there are talks of the children getting impacted," added Vijayan.
Earlier in the day, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan wrote to Vijayan, noting that things are getting out of hand on the economic front due to the lockdown that has been in place for more than a month and hence, steps should be ensured to see that economic activity should be resumed at the earliest.
Background
Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Tuesday, June 15, 2021: The highly transmissible Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has mutated further to form the Delta plus’ or AY.1′ variant but there is no immediate cause for concern in India as its incidence in the country is still low, scientists here said. The new Delta plus variant has been formed due to a mutation in the Delta or B.1.617.2 variant, first identified in India and one of the drivers of the deadly second wave.
Novavax's COVID-19 jab is more than 90 percent effective, including against coronavirus variants, the vaccine maker said Monday after a large-scale US study.
The jab "demonstrated 100% protection against moderate and severe disease, 90.4% efficacy overall," the company said in a statement, adding "the study enrolled 29,960 participants across 119 sites in the U.S. and Mexico to evaluate efficacy, safety and immunogenicity."
The Maryland-headquartered company said it intended to apply for regulatory approval by the third quarter of 2021.
The West Bengal government on Monday extended the ongoing restrictions to combat the Covid-19 pandemic for 15 more days till June 30, while easing some of the measures as the situation has improved now, a top official said. The decisions were announced a day before the ongoing restrictions are scheduled to come to an end on Tuesday. The administration allowed government and private offices to function with 25 per cent workforce from June 16. Employers have to arrange for transporting employees as restrictions on public transportation services will continue till further orders, Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi said.
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